Protective Ventilator Co., 110-114 W. 32nd St. between 6th and 7th Aves. (2008)

Established 1869
Protective Ventilator Co
Ventilation for Every Purpose

These signs came to light in March 2008 when demolition started on the building to the immediate east, 106-108 W. 32nd St. New York City Dept. of Buildings records indicate that plans were filed for a new building at 106-108 W. 32nd St. in 1910. Protective Ventilator moved from 129 Fulton St. to 110 W. 32nd St. in 1910. This sign, then, dates from 1910. The older sign, above, probably reads Alliance Press. If so, it dates from 1907, when Alliance Press moved to this address.

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Alliance Press was begun in 1882 by the Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919), founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a Presbyterian evangelical movement. Alliance Press published literature connected with the group's evangelistic mission. Alliance Press also functioned independently as a commercial printer, offering standard printer services (the sign mentions binding, embossing, designing, and linotype composition). Albert Simpson's obituary in the New York Times (30 Oct. 1919), reads in part, "Born in Canada and educated in Toronto College, Mr. Simpson was ordained in the Presbyterian ministry in 1865 and came to this city in 1881. Six years later he founded the Christian Alliance, combined afterward with the International Missionary Alliance, of which he was president until his death. In addition to sending out hundreds of foreign missionaries he conducted a vast amount of relief work among the poor. To prepare workers in these fields he maintained at Nyack the Missionary Training Institute and the Institute for Training of Home Workers... There was almost no end to Mr. Simpson's religious activities. He was editor of the Alliance Weekly and proprietor of the Alliance Press Company."

Alliance Press was located in this building from 1907 to 1938. They seem to have gone out of business around 1941.

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The Protective Ventilator sign bears the signature H. H. Upham & Co. They were sign painters in business from as early as 1858. For more than 60 years (from 1891 until the 1950s) Upham were located at 508 West Broadway. At the top of 508 West Broadway, as of July 2008, one could still make out the letters "H UPHAM &" (click for image). An ad for Upham appeared in Science magazine 15 April 1892. The address at the time was 54 South 5th Ave., which is the same building as 508 West Broadway (South 5th Ave. was re-named West Broadway around 1895, and the buildings were re-numbered at that time). Two brass plaques on the front of the building give the date Upham was founded and the date 508 West Broadway was erected. Andrew S. Dolkart writing for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation describes the building as follows: "a Romanesque Revival style building constructed of ironspot Roman brick and trimmed with rock-faced brick and terra cotta ... designed in 1891 by Brunner & Tryon, one of the most prestigious firms in New York" (www.gvshp.org). In its later days (possibly as early as around 1904) H. H. Upham was run by Louis I. Haber (1858-1947) and his sons, Ferdinand Irving Haber (1883-1965) and Harold Edgar Haber (1885-1969). Louis Haber's obituary (New York Times, 22 Oct. 1947, p. 29) specifies that he joined H. H. Upham in 1876, but it is as a collector of manuscripts and rare books that he is described by the Times: "book, manuscript and autograph collector and treasure emeritus of the Grolier Club... At an early age he commenced to collect rare manuscripts and books and he joined the Grolier Club in 1885, a year after it was formed. Later he was its treasurer. At his death he was an honorary member and the oldest member in years of affiliation."

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For many years 110-114 W. 32nd St. was the headquarters of Willoughby Camera Stores, Inc., a retail and wholesale camera business. In 1986 there was a sign on the west wall for Willoughby's (see the next image).

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